Victor Cousin Quotes

France, Philosopher
November 28, 1792 – January, 14, 1867.

Victor Cousin (French: [kuzɛ̃]; 28 November 1792 – 14 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism," a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As the administrator of public instruction for over a decade, Cousin also had an important influence on French educational policy.

Also known as Politician, Writer, University Teacher, Biographer, Philosophy Historian, Minister

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

Victor Cousin
- True
- Philosophy
- Nothing
Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice.

Victor Cousin
- Ignorance
- Source
- Misery

All truly historical peoples have an idea they must realize, and when they have sufficiently exploited it at home, they export it, in a certain way, by war; they make it tour the world.

Victor Cousin
- World
- Home
- War
The beautiful cannot be the way to what is useful, or to what is good, or to what is holy; it leads only to itself.

Victor Cousin
- Good
- Beautiful
- Way
All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties; they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state; but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things.

Victor Cousin
- Men
- True
- Nature